The history of the Republic of China (simplified Chinese:
中华民国; traditional Chinese:
中華民國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó) begins after
the Qing Dynasty
in 1912, when the formation of the Republic of China put an end to over two
thousand years of Imperial rule. The Qing Dynasty, also known as
the Manchu Dynasty, ruled from 1644 to 1912. Since the republic's
founding, it has experienced many tribulations as it was dominated
by numerous warlords
and fragmented by foreign powers. In 1928, the republic was
nominally unified under the Kuomintang (KMT, the Chinese Nationalist Party), and was in the
early stages of industrialization and modernization when it was
caught in the conflicts between the Kuomintang government, the Communist Party of China,
remnant warlords, and Japan.
Most nation-building efforts were stopped during the full-scale War of Resistance against
Japan from 1937 to 1945, and later the widening gap between the
Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party made a coalition
government impossible, causing the resumption of the Chinese Civil
War.

A series of political, economic, and military missteps led the
Kuomintang to defeat and retreat to Taiwan in 1949, establishing an authoritarian one-party
state that considered itself to be the sole legitimate ruler of
all of China. However, since political liberalization began in the
late 1970s, the Republic of China has transformed itself into a
multiparty, representative democracy on Taiwan.

Early republic
(1912-1916)

Founding of the republic

Three different flags were
originally used during the revolution. The bottom message says
"Long live the republic!" with the five races represented by the Five-Color
Flag of the Republic.

The last days of the Qing Dynasty were marked by civil unrest
and foreign invasions. Various internal rebellions caused millions
of deaths, and conflicts with foreign powers almost always resulted
in humiliating unequal treaties that exacted costly reparation and
compromised the country's territorial integrity. In addition, there
were feelings that political power should return to the majority Han Chinese from the
minority Manchus. Responding to these civil failures
and discontent, the Qing Imperial Court did attempt to reform the
government in various ways, such as the decision to draft a
constitution in 1906, the establishment of provincial legislatures
in 1909, and the preparation for a national parliament in 1910.
However, many of these measures were opposed by the conservatives
of the Qing Court, and many reformers were either imprisoned or
executed outright. The failures of the Imperial Court to enact such
reforming measures of political liberalization and modernization
caused the reformists to steer toward the road of revolution.

There were many revolutionary groups, but the most organized one
was founded by Sun
Yat-sen, a republican
and anti-Qing activist who became increasingly popular among the overseas
Chinese and Chinese students abroad, especially in Japan. In
1905 Sun founded the Tongmenghui in Tokyo with Huang Xing, a popular
leader of the Chinese revolutionary movement in Japan, as his
deputy. This movement, generously supported by overseas Chinese
funds, also gained political support with regional military
officers and some of the reformers who had fled China after the Hundred
Days' Reform. Sun's political philosophy was conceptualized in
1897, first enunciated in Tokyo in 1905, and modified through the
early 1920s. It centered on the Three Principles of the
People: "nationalism, democracy, and people's livelihood". The
principle of nationalism called for overthrowing the Manchus and
ending foreign hegemony over China. The second principle,
democracy, was used to describe Sun's goal of a popularly elected
republican form of government. People's livelihood, often referred
to as socialism, was aimed at helping the common people through
regulation of the ownership of the means of production and
land.

Bonds that Sun Yat-sen used to raise money for revolutionary cause.
The Republic of China was also once known as the Chunghwa
Republic.

A calendar that commemorates the first year of the Republic as well
as the election of Sun
Yat-sen as the provisional President.

The Republican Era of China began with the outbreak of
revolution on October 10, 1911, in Wuchang, the capital
of Hubei Province, among
discontented modernized army units whose anti-Qing plot had been
uncovered. This would be known as the Wuchang Uprising which is celebrated
as Double Tenth Day in Taiwan. It had been
preceded by numerous abortive uprisings and organized protests
inside China. The revolt quickly spread to neighboring cities, and
Tongmenghui members throughout the country rose in immediate
support of the Wuchang revolutionary forces. On October 12, the
Revolutionaries succeeded in capturing Hankou and Hanyang.

However this euphoria over the revolution was short-lived. On
October 27, Yuan
Shikai was appointed by the Qing Court to lead his New Armies,
including the First Army led by Feng Guozhang and the Second Army led by
Duan Qirui, to retake
the city of Wuhan, which was
taken by the Revolutionary Army on October 11. The Revolutionary
Army had some six thousand troops to fend off nearly fifteen
thousand of Yuan's New Army. On November 11, the Revolutionaries
retreated from Wuhan to Hanyang. By November 27, Hanyang was also
lost and the Revolutionaries had to return to their starting point,
Wuchang. However, during some fifty days of warfare against Yuan's
army, fifteen of the twenty-four provinces had declared their
independence of the Qing empire. A month later, Sun Yat-sen
returned to China from the United States, where he had been raising
funds among overseas Chinese and American sympathizers. On January
1, 1912, delegates from the independent provinces elected Sun
Yat-sen as the first Provisional President of the Republic of
China.

Because of the short period and fervor in which the provinces
declared independence from the Qing Court, Yuan Shikai felt that it
was in his best interest to negotiate with the Revolutionaries.
Yuan agreed to accept the Republic of China, and as such most of
the rest of the New Armies were now turned against the Qing
Dynasty. The chain of events forced the last emperor of China, Puyi, to abdicate, on February 12
upon Yuan Shikai's suggestion to Empress Dowager Longyu, who
signed the abdication papers. Puyi was allowed to continue living
in the Forbidden City, however. The Republic of China officially
succeeded the Qing Dynasty.

Early
Republic

On January 1, 1912, Sun officially declared the Republic of
China and was inaugurated in Nanjing as the first Provisional
President. But power in Beijing already had passed to Yuan Shikai, who had
effective control of the Beiyang Army, the most powerful military
force in China at the time. To prevent civil war and possible foreign intervention
from undermining the infant republic, Sun agreed to Yuan's demand
that China be united under a Beijing government headed by Yuan. On
March 10, in Beijing, Yuan Shikai was sworn in as the second
Provisional President of the Republic of China.

A poster that commemorates the permanent President of the Republic
of China Yuan Shikai
and the provisional President of the Republic Sun Yat-sen.

The republic that Sun Yat-sen and his associates envisaged
evolved slowly. Although there were many political parties each
vying for supremacy in the legislature, the revolutionists lacked
an army, and the power of Yuan Shikai began to outstrip that of
parliament. Yuan revised the constitution at will and became
dictatorial. In August 1912, the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) was founded
by Song Jiaoren,
one of Sun's associates. It was an amalgamation of small political
groups, including Sun's Tongmenghui. In the national elections held
in February 1913 for the new bicameral parliament, Song campaigned
against the Yuan administration, whose representation at the time
was largely by the Republican Party, led by Liang Qichao. Song was an able campaigner
and the Kuomintang won a majority of seats.

Second
Revolution

Some people believe that Yuan Shikai had Song assassinated in
March; it has never been proven, although he had already arranged
the assassination of several pro-revolutionist generals. Animosity
towards Yuan grew. In April, Yuan secured the Reorganization Loan
of twenty-five million pounds sterling
from Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany and Japan, without
consulting the parliament first. The loan was used to finance
Yuan's Beiyang Army. On May 20, Yuan concluded a deal with Russia
that recognized special Russian privilege in Outer Mongolia
and restricted Chinese right to station troops there. Kuomintang
members of the Parliament accused Yuan of abusing his rights and
called for his removal. On the other hand, the Progressive Party (traditional Chinese:
進步黨; pinyin: Jìnbùdǎng),
which was composed of constitutional monarchists and supported
Yuan, accused the Kuomintang of fomenting an insurrection. Yuan
then decided to use military action against the Kuomintang.

In July 1913, seven southern provinces rebelled against Yuan,
thus beginning the Second Revolution (traditional Chinese:
二次革命; pinyin: Èrcì Gémìng).
There were several underlying reasons for the Second Revolution
besides Yuan's abuse of power. First was that many Revolutionary
Armies from different provinces were disbanded after the
establishment of the Republic of China, and many officers and
soldiers felt that they were not compensated for toppling the Qing
Dynasty. Thus, there was much discontent against the new government
among the military. Secondly, many revolutionaries felt that Yuan
Shikai and Li Yuanhong were undeserving of the posts of presidency
and vice presidency, because they acquired the posts through
political maneuvers, rather than participation in the revolutionary
movement. And lastly, Yuan's use of violence (such as Song's
assassination), dashed Kuomintang's hope of achieving reforms and
political goals through electoral means.

However, the Second Revolution did not fare well for the
Kuomintang. The leading Kuomintang military force of Jiangxi was defeated by Yuan's
forces on August 1 and Nanchang was taken. On September 1, Nanjing
was taken. When the rebellion was suppressed, Sun and other
instigators fled to Japan. In
October 1913 an intimidated parliament formally elected Yuan Shikai
President of the
Republic of China, and the major powers extended recognition to
his government. Duan
Qirui and other trusted Beiyang generals were given prominent
positions in cabinet. To achieve international recognition, Yuan
Shikai had to agree to autonomy for Outer Mongolia and Tibet. China was still to be suzerain, but it would
have to allow Russia a free
hand in Outer Mongolia and Tanna
Tuva and Britain continuation of its influence in
Tibet.

Yuan Shikai and
the National Protection War

In November Yuan
Shikai, legally president, ordered the Kuomintang dissolved and
forcefully removed its members from parliament. Because the
majority of the parliament members belonged to the Kuomintang, the
parliament did not meet quorum
and was subsequently unable to convene. In January 1914 Yuan
formally suspended the parliament. In February, Yuan called into
session a meeting to revise the Provisional Constitution of the
Republic of China, which was announced in May of that year. The
revision greatly expanded Yuan's powers, allowing him to declare
war, sign treaties, and appoint officials without seeking approvals
from the legislature first. In December 1914, he further revised
the law and lengthened the term of the President to ten years, with
no term limit. Essentially Yuan was preparing for his ascendancy as
the emperor.

On the other hand, since the failure of the Second Revolution,
Sun Yat-sen and his allies were trying to rebuild the revolutionary
movement. In July 1914, Sun established the Chinese Revolutionary Party
(traditional Chinese:
中華革命黨; pinyin: Zhōnghúa
Gémìngdǎng). Sun felt that his failures at building a
consistent revolutionary movement stemmed from the lack of
cohesiveness among its members. Thus, for his new party, Sun
required its members to be totally loyal to Sun and follow a series
of rather harsh rules. Some of Sun's earlier associates, including
Huang Xing, balked at the idea of such authoritarian organization
and refused to join Sun. However, they agreed that the republic
must not revert back to imperial rule.

Besides the revolutionary groups associated with Sun, there were
also several other groups aimed at toppling Yuan Shikai. One was
the Progressive Party, the originally constitutional-monarchist
party which opposed the Kuomintang during the Second Revolution.
The Progressive Party switched their position largely because of
Yuan's sabotage of the national parliament. Secondly, many
provincial governors, who had declared their independence from the
Qing Imperial Court in 1912, found the idea of supporting another
Imperial Court utterly ridiculous. Yuan also alienated his Beiyang
generals by centralizing tax collection from local authorities. In
addition, public opinion was overwhelmingly anti-Yuan.

When World War I
broke out in 1914, Japan fought on the Allied side and seized German holdings in Shandong Province. In 1915
the Japanese set before the government in Beijing the so-called Twenty-One
Demands. The Demands aimed to install Japanese economic
controls in railway and mining operations in Shandong, Manchuria,
Fujian, and pressed to have Yuan Shikai appoint Japanese advisors
in key positions in the Chinese government. The Twenty-One Demands
would have made China a Japanese protectorate. The Beijing
government rejected some of these demands but yielded to the
Japanese insistence on keeping the Shandong territory already in
its possession. Beijing also recognized Tokyo's authority over
southern Manchuria and
eastern Inner
Mongolia. Yuan's acceptance of the demands was extremely
unpopular, but he continued his monarchist agenda nevertheless.

On 12 December 1915, Yuan, supported by his son Yuan Keding, declared himself emperor of a
new Empire of
China. This sent shockwaves throughout China, causing
widespread rebellion in numerous provinces. On 25 December, former
Yunnan governor Cai E, former
Jiangxi governor Li
Liejun (traditional Chinese:
李烈鈞; pinyin: Lǐ Lièjūn), and
Yunnan general Tang
Jiyao formed the National Protection Army (traditional Chinese:
護國軍; pinyin: Hùgúojūn) and
declared Yunnan independent. Thus began the National Protection War (traditional Chinese:
護國戰爭; pinyin: Hùgúo
Zhànzhēng). Yunnan's declaration of independence also
encouraged other southern provinces to declare independence. Yuan's
Beiyang generals, who were already wary of Yuan's imperial
coronation, did not put up an aggressive campaign against the
National Protection Army. On 22 March 1916, Yuan formally
repudiated monarchy and stepped down as the first and last emperor
of his dynasty. Yuan died on 6 June of that year. Vice President Li Yuanhong assumed
presidency and appointed Beiyang general Duan Qirui as his Premier. Yuan Shikai's
imperial ambitions finally ended with the return of republican
government.

Warlord Era
(1916-1928)

After Yuan Shikai's death, shifting alliances of regional
warlords fought for control of the Beijing government. Despite the
fact that various warlords gained control of the government in
Beijing during the warlord era, this did not constitute a new era
of control or governance, because other warlords did not
acknowledge the transitory governments in this period and were a
law unto themselves. These military-dominated governments were
collectively known as the Beiyang
government. The warlord era is considered by some historians to
have ended in 1927.

World War I and brief
Manchu restoration

After Yuan Shikai's death, Li Yuanhong became the President and Duan Qirui became the
Premier. The Provisional Constitution was reinstated and the
parliament convened. However, Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui had many
conflicts, the most glaring of which was China's entry into World War I. Since the
outbreak of the war, China had remained neutral until the United States urged
all neutral countries to join the Allies, as a condemnation of Germany's use of unrestricted submarine
warfare. Premier Duan Qirui was particularly interested in
joining the Allies, because he would then use the opportunity to
secure loans from Japan to build up his Anhui Clique army. The
two factions in the parliament engaged in ugly debates regarding
the entry of China and, in May 1917, Li Yuanhong dismissed Duan
Qirui from his government.

Duan's dismissal caused provincial military governors loyal to
Duan to declare independence and to call for Li Yuanhong to step
down as the President. Li Yuanhong summoned Zhang Xun to mediate the
situation. Zhang Xun had been a general serving the Qing Court and
was by this time the military governor of Anhui province. He had
his mind on restoring Puyi (or Xuantong Emperor) to the imperial throne.
Zhang was supplied with funds and weapons through the German
legation who were eager to keep China neutral.

On July 1, 1917, Zhang officially proclaimed that the Qing Dynasty has been
restored and requested that Li Yuanhong give up his seat as the
President, which Li promptly rejected. During the restoration
affair, Duan Qirui led his army and defeated Zhang Xun's
restoration forces in Beijing. One of Duan's airplanes bombed the
Forbidden City, in what was possibly the first aerial bombardment
in East Asia. On July 12 Zhang's forces disintegrated and Duan
returned to Beijing.

The Manchu restoration ended almost as soon as it began. During
this period of confusion, Vice President Feng Guozhang, also a Beiyang general,
assumed the post of Acting President of the republic and was
sworn-in in Nanjing. Duan Qirui resumed his post as the Premier.
The Zhili Clique of Feng Guozhang and the Anhui
Clique of Duan Qirui emerged as the most powerful cliques
following the restoration affair.

Duan Qirui's triumphant return to Beijing essentially made him
the most powerful leader in China. Duan dissolved the parliament
upon his return and declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary on
August 13, 1917. German and Austro-Hungarian nationals were
detained and their assets seized. Around 175,000 Chinese workers
volunteered for labour battalions after being
enticed with money, some even years before war was declared. They
were sent to the Western Front, German East
Africa, and Mesopotamia and served on supply ships.
Some 10,000 died including over 500 due to U-boats. No soldiers were
sent overseas though they did participate with the Allies in the Siberian Intervention under
Japanese General Kikuzo Otani.

Constitutional Protection
War

In September, Duan's complete disregard for the constitution
caused Sun Yat-sen and the deposed parliament members to establish
a new government in Guangzhou and the Constitutional Protection
Army (traditional Chinese:
護法軍; pinyin: Hùfǎjūn) to
counter Duan's abuse of power. Ironically, Sun Yat-sen's new
government was not based on the Provisional Constitution. Rather,
the new government was a military government and Sun was its "Grand
Commander of the Armed Forces" (traditional Chinese:
大元帥; pinyin: Dàyúanshuài,
translated in the Western press as "Generalissimo"). Six southern provinces
became part of Sun's Guangzhou military government and repelled
Duan's attempt to destroy the Constitutional Protection Army.

The Constitutional Protection War continued through 1918. Many
in Sun Yat-sen's Guangzhou government felt Sun's position as the
Generalissimo was too exclusionary and promoted a cabinet system to
challenge Sun's ultimate authority. As a result, the Guangzhou
government was reorganized to elect a seven-member cabinet system,
known as the Governing Committee. Sun was once again sidelined by
his political opponents and military strongmen. He left for
Shanghai following the reorganization.

Duan Qirui's Beijing government did not fare much better than
Sun's. Some generals in Duan's Anhui Clique and others in the Zhili
Clique did not want to use force to unify the southern provinces.
They felt negotiation was the solution to unify China and forced
Duan to resign in October. In addition, many were distressed by
Duan's borrowing of huge sums of Japanese money to fund his army to
fight internal enemies. President Feng Guozhang, with his term
expiring, was then succeeded by Xu Shichang, who wanted to negotiate with
the southern provinces. In February 1919, delegates from the
northern and southern provinces convened in Shanghai to discuss
postwar situations. However, the meeting broke down over Duan's
borrowing of Japanese loans to fund the Anhui Clique army and
further attempts at negotiation were hampered by the May Fourth
Movement. The Constitutional Protection War essentially left
China divided along the north-south border.

May Fourth
Movement

In 1917, China declared war on Germany in the hope of recovering
its lost province, then under Japanese control. On May 4, 1919,
there were massive student demonstrations against the Beijing
government and Japan. The political fervor, student activism, and
iconoclastic and reformist intellectual currents set in motion by
the patriotic student protest developed into a national awakening
known as the May Fourth Movement. The
intellectual milieu in which the May Fourth Movement developed was
known as the New Culture Movement (新文化運動) and occupied the period
from 1917 to 1923. The student demonstrations of May 4, 1919 were
the high point of the New Culture Movement, and the terms are often
used synonymously. Chinese representatives refused to sign the
Treaty of Versailles, due to intense pressure from the student
protesters and public opinion alike.

Fight
against warlordism

The May Fourth Movement helped to rekindle the then-fading cause
of republican revolution. In 1917 Sun Yat-sen had become
commander-in-chief of a rival military government in Guangzhou in collaboration
with southern warlords. In October 1919, Sun reestablished the Kuomintang (KMT) to
counter the government in Beijing. The latter, under a succession
of warlords, still maintained its facade of legitimacy and its
relations with the West. By 1921, Sun had become president of the
southern government. He spent his remaining years trying to
consolidate his regime and achieve unity with the north. His
efforts to obtain aid from the Western democracies were ignored,
however, and in 1920 he turned to the Soviet Union, which had recently achieved
its own revolution. The Soviets sought to befriend the Chinese
revolutionists by offering scathing attacks on Western imperialism.
But for political expediency, the Soviet leadership initiated a
dual policy of support for both Sun and the newly established Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

In 1922 the Kuomintang-warlord alliance in Guangzhou was
ruptured, and Sun fled to Shanghai. By then, Sun saw the need to seek
Soviet support for his cause. In 1923, a joint statement by Sun and
a Soviet representative in Shanghai pledged Soviet assistance for
China's national unification. Soviet advisers — the most prominent
of whom was an agent of the Comintern, Mikhail Borodin — began to arrive in
China in 1923 to aid in the reorganization and consolidation of the
Kuomintang along the lines of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union. The CCP was under Comintern instructions to
cooperate with the Kuomintang, and its members were encouraged to
join while maintaining their party identities.

The CCP was still small at the time, having a membership of 300
in 1921 and only 1,500 by 1925. The Kuomintang in 1922 already had
150,000 members. Soviet advisers also helped the Kuomintang set up
a political institute to train propagandists in mass mobilization
techniques and in 1923 sent Chiang Kai-shek, one of Sun's
lieutenants from Tongmenghui days, for several months' military and
political study in Moscow.
After Chiang's return in late 1923, he participated in the
establishment of the Whampoa Military Academy
outside Guangzhou, which was the seat of government under the
Kuomintang-CCP alliance. In 1924 Chiang became head of the academy
and began the rise to prominence that would make him Sun's
successor as head of the Kuomintang and the unifier of all China
under the right-wing nationalist government.

Chiang
consolidates power

Sun Yat-sen died of cancer in Beijing in March 1925, as the Nationalist
movement he had helped to initiate was gaining momentum. During the
summer of 1925, Chiang, as commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary
Army, set out on the long-delayed Northern Expedition against the northern
warlords. Within nine months, half of China had been conquered. By
1926, however, the Kuomintang had divided into left- and right-wing
factions, and the Communist bloc within it was also growing. In
March 1926, after thwarting a kidnapping attempt against him (Zhongshan Warship Incident),
Chiang abruptly dismissed his Soviet advisers, imposed restrictions
on CCP members' participation in the top leadership, and emerged as
the preeminent Kuomintang leader. The Soviet Union, still hoping to
prevent a split between Chiang and the CCP, ordered Communist
underground activities to facilitate the Northern Expedition, which
was finally launched by Chiang from Guangzhou in July 1926.

In early 1927, the Kuomintang-CCP rivalry led to a split in the
revolutionary ranks. The CCP and the left wing of the Kuomintang
had decided to move the seat of the Nationalist government from
Guangzhou to Wuhan. But Chiang,
whose Northern Expedition was proving successful, set his forces to
destroying the Shanghai CCP apparatus and established an
anti-Communist government at Nanjing in April 1927 - bloody events. There now were
three capitals in China: the internationally recognized warlord
regime in Beijing; the Communist and left-wing Kuomintang regime at
Wuhan; and the right-wing civilian-military regime at Nanjing,
which would remain the Kuomintang capital for the next decade.

The Comintern cause appeared bankrupt. A new policy was
instituted calling on the CCP to foment armed insurrections in both
urban and rural areas in preparation for an expected rising tide of
revolution. Unsuccessful attempts were made by Communists to take
cities such as Nanchang,
Changsha, Shantou, and Guangzhou, and an
armed rural insurrection, known as the Autumn Harvest Uprising, was
staged by peasants in Hunan
Province. The insurrection was led by Mao Zedong, who would later become chairman
of the CCP and head of state of the People's Republic of
China.

But in mid-1927, the CCP was at a low ebb. The Communists had
been expelled from Wuhan by their left-wing Kuomintang allies, who
in turn were toppled by a military regime. By 1928, all of China
was at least nominally under Chiang's control, and the Nanjing
government received prompt international recognition as the sole
legitimate government of China. The Kuomintang government announced
that in conformity with Sun Yat-sen's formula for the three stages
of revolution — military unification, political tutelage, and
constitutional democracy — China had reached the end of the first
phase and would embark on the second, which would be under
Kuomintang direction.

The "Nanjing Decade" of 1928-37 was one of consolidation and
accomplishment by the Kuomintang. Some of the harsh aspects of
foreign concessions and privileges in China were moderated through
diplomacy. In May 1930 the government regained the right to set its
tariff, which before then had
been set by the foreign powers. The government acted also
energetically to modernize the legal and penal systems, stabilize
prices, amortize debts, reform the banking and currency systems,
build railroads and highways, improve public health facilities,
legislate against traffic in narcotics, and augment industrial and
agricultural production. On November 3, 1935 the government
instituted the fiat currency (fapi) reform,
immediately stabilizing prices and also raising revenues for the
government. Great strides also were made in education and, in an
effort to help unify Chinese society, in a program to popularize
the Standard
Mandarin language and overcome other Spoken Chinese variations. Newspapers,
magazines, and book publishing flourished,and the widespread
establishment of communications facilities further encouraged a
sense of unity and pride among the people. The ease and speed of
communication also allowed a focus on social problems, including
those of the villages. The Rural Reconstruction
Movement was one of many which took advantage of the new
freedom to raise social consciousness. On the other hand, political
freedom was considerably curtailed because of the Kuomintang's
one-party domination through "political tutelage" and often violent
means in shutting down anti-government protests.

Although the Kuomintang was nominally in control of the entire
country during this period, large areas of China remained under the
semi-autonomous rule of local warlords or warlord coalitions. The
Kuomintang's rule was strongest in the eastern regions of China
around the capital Nanjing, but regional warlords such as Feng Yuxiang and Yan
Xishan retained considerable local authority. The Central
Plains War in 1930 and the Japanese aggression in 1931
seemingly solved this situation as the regional authority were able
to unite together under one common front along with the central
government.

Second Sino-Japanese
War (1937-1945)

Few Chinese had any illusions about Japanese designs on China. Hungry for raw materials and pressed by a
growing population, Japan initiated the seizure of Manchuria in September 1931
and established ex-Qing emperor Puyi as head of the puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932. The loss of Manchuria, and
its vast potential for industrial development and war industries,
was a blow to the Kuomintang economy. The League of
Nations, established at the end of World War I, was unable to
act in the face of the Japanese defiance. The Japanese began to
push from south of the Great Wall into northern China and
into the coastal provinces. Chinese fury against Japan was
predictable, but anger was also directed against the Republic of
China government, which at the time was more preoccupied with
anti-Communist extermination campaigns than with resisting the
Japanese invaders. The importance of "internal unity before
external danger" was forcefully brought home in December 1936, when
Chiang
Kai-shek, in an event now known as the Xi'an Incident
was kidnapped by Zhang Xueliang and forced to ally with
the Communists against the Japanese as a condition of his
release.

The Chinese resistance stiffened after July 7, 1937, when a
clash occurred between Chinese and Japanese troops outside Beijing
(then renamed Beiping) near the Marco Polo Bridge. This skirmish not only
marked the beginning of open, though undeclared, war between China
and Japan but also hastened the formal announcement of the Second
Kuomintang-CCP United Front against Japan. Shanghai fell after a three month
battle which ended after severe Japanese naval and army
casualties. The capital of Nanjing fell in December 1937. It was followed
by a series of mass killings and rape of civilians in the Nanjing Massacre.

The collaboration between the Kuomintang and CCP took place with
salutary effects for the beleaguered CCP. The distrust between the
two parties, however, was scarcely veiled. The uneasy alliance
began to break down after late 1938, despite Japan's steady
territorial gains in northern China, the coastal regions, and the
rich Yangtze
River Valley in central China. After 1940, conflicts between
the Kuomintang and Communists became more frequent in the areas not under
Japanese control. The Communists expanded their influence
wherever opportunities presented themselves through mass
organizations, administrative reforms, and the land- and tax-reform
measures favoring the peasants — while the Kuomintang attempted to
neutralize the spread of Communist influence. Meanwhile northern
China was infiltrated politically further more by the Japanese politicians in Manchukuo.
Facilities such as Wei Huang Gong is an example.

In 1945, the Republic of China emerged from the war nominally a
great military power but actually a nation economically prostrate
and on the verge of all-out civil war. The economy deteriorated,
sapped by the military demands of foreign war and internal strife,
by spiraling inflation, and by Nationalist profiteering,
speculation, and hoarding. Starvation came in the wake of the war,
and millions were rendered homeless by floods and the unsettled
conditions in many parts of the country. The situation was further
complicated by an Allied agreement at the Yalta
Conference in February 1945 that brought Soviet troops into
Manchuria to hasten the termination of war against Japan. Although
the Chinese had not been present at Yalta, they had been consulted;
they had agreed to have the Soviets enter the war in the belief
that the Soviet Union would deal only with the Kuomintang
government. After the war, the Soviet Union, as part of the Yalta
agreement's allowing a Soviet sphere of influence in Manchuria,
dismantled and removed more than half the industrial equipment left
there by the Japanese. The Soviet presence in northeast China
enabled the Communists to move in long enough to arm themselves
with the equipment surrendered by the withdrawing Japanese army.
The problems of rehabilitating the formerly Japanese-occupied areas
and of reconstructing the nation from the ravages of a protracted
war were staggering.

Civil
War (1945-1949)

During World War II, the United States emerged as a major actor
in Chinese affairs. As an ally it embarked in late 1941 on a
program of massive military and financial aid to the hard-pressed
Nationalist government. In January 1943 the United States and
Britain led the way in revising their treaties with China, bringing
to an end a century of unequal treaty relations. Within a few
months, a new agreement was signed between the United States and
Republic of China for the stationing of American troops in China
for the common war effort against Japan. In December 1943 the Chinese
Exclusion Acts of the 1880s and subsequent laws enacted by the
United States Congress to restrict Chinese immigration into the
United States were repealed.

The wartime policy of the United States was initially to help
China become a strong ally and a stabilizing force in postwar East Asia. As the conflict
between the Kuomintang and the Communists intensified, however, the
United States sought unsuccessfully to reconcile the rival forces
for a more effective anti-Japanese war effort. Toward the end of
the war, United States
Marines were used to hold Beiping (Beijing) and Tianjin against a possible
Soviet incursion, and logistic support was given to Kuomintang
forces in north and northeast China.

Through the mediatory influence of the United States a military
truce was arranged in January 1946, but battles between the
Kuomintang and Communists soon resumed. Public opinion of
administrative incompetence of the Republic of China government was
escalated and incited by the Communists in the nationwide student
protest against mishandling of a rape accusation in early 1947 and
another national protest against monetary reforms later that year.
Realizing that American efforts short of large-scale armed
intervention could not stop the war, the United States withdrew the
American mission, headed by General George C.
Marshall, in early 1947. The Chinese Civil War, in which the
United States aided the Nationalists with massive economic loans
and weapons but no combat support, became more widespread. Battles
raged not only for territories but also for the allegiance of cross
sections of the population.

Belatedly, the Republic of China government sought to enlist
popular support through internal reforms. The effort was in vain,
however, because of the rampant corruption in government and the
accompanying political and economic chaos. By late 1948, the
Kuomintang position was bleak. The demoralized and undisciplined
Kuomintang troops proved no match for the communist People's Liberation Army,
earlier known as the Red Army. The Communists were well established
in the north and northeast. Although the Kuomintang had an
advantage in numbers of men and weapons, controlled a much larger
territory and population than their adversaries, and enjoyed
considerable international support, they were exhausted by the long
war with Japan and in-fighting among various generals. They were
also losing the propaganda war to the Communists, with the
population weary of Kuomintang corruption and yearning for peace.
In January 1949, Beiping was taken by the Communists without a
fight, and its name changed back to Beijing. Between April and
November, major cities passed from Kuomintang to Communist control
with minimal resistance. In most cases, the surrounding countryside
and small towns had come under Communist influence long before the
cities. After Chiang Kai-shek and a few hundred thousand Republic
of China troops and 2 million refugees, predominantly from the
government and business community, fled from mainland China to Taiwan (which had been acquired
by the Kuomintang from Japan in 1945), there remained only isolated
pockets of resistance. In December 1949, Chiang proclaimed Taipei, Taiwan, the temporary
capital of the Republic of China.

Cross-straits relations and international position in
1949-1970

At the end of 1943, the Cairo Declaration was issued,
including among its clauses that all territories of China,
including Formosa (Taiwan), that Japan had occupied would be
returned to Republic of China. This declaration was reiterated in
the Potsdam Declaration, issued in
1945. Later that year, World War II ended, and Japan accepted the
Potsdam Declaration, surrendering unconditionally. The Supreme
Commander of the Allied Forces commanded that the Japanese forces
in Taiwan surrender to the government of the Republic of China.[1] On
October 25, 1945 in Taipei Zhongshan
Hall, the Japanese government in Taiwan surrendered to the
representative of the Republic of China, Chen Yi, the Republic of
China formally receiving Taiwan. In 1951, Japan formally signed the
Treaty of San Francisco, but,
due to the unclear situation of the Chinese civil war, the peace
treaty did not clearly indicate to whom Taiwan's sovereignty
belonged. In the second article of the 1952 Treaty of
Taipei, following the Treaty of San Francisco, Japan reiterated
its abandonment of sovereignty of Taiwan, the Pescadores, the
Spratlys and the Paracels.

In June 1949 the ROC declared a "closure" of all mainland China
ports and its navy attempted to intercept all foreign ships. The
closure covered from a point north of the mouth of Min river
in Fujian province to the mouth of the Liao river in
Manchuria.[4]
Since mainland China's railroad network was underdeveloped,
north-south trade depended heavily on sea lanes. ROC naval activity
also caused severe hardship for mainland China fishermen.

After losing mainland China, a group of approximately 12,000 KMT
soldiers escaped to Burma and
continued launching guerrilla attacks into south China. Their
leader, General Li Mi, was paid a salary by the ROC
government and given the nominal title of Governor of Yunnan. Initially, the United
States supported these remnants and the Central Intelligence Agency
provided them with aid. After the Burmese government appealed to
the United
Nations in 1953, the U.S. began pressuring the ROC to withdraw
its loyalists. By the end of 1954, nearly 6,000 soldiers had left
Burma and Li Mi declared his army disbanded. However, thousands
remained, and the ROC continued to supply and command them, even
secretly supplying reinforcements at times.

During the Korean
War, some captured Communist Chinese soldiers, many of whom
were originally KMT soldiers, were repatriated to Taiwan rather
than mainland China. A KMT guerrilla force continued to operate
cross-border raids into south-western China in the early 1950s. The
ROC government launched a number of air bombing raids into key
coastal cities of mainland China such as Shanghai.

Though viewed as a military liability by the United States, the
ROC viewed its remaining islands in Fujian as vital for
any future campaign to defeat the PRC and retake mainland China. On
September 3, 1954, the First Taiwan
Strait crisis began when the PLA started shelling Quemoy and
threatened to take the Dachen Islands.[4]
On January 20, 1955, the PLA took nearby Yijiangshan Island, with the entire ROC
garrison of 720 troops killed or wounded defending the island. On
January 24 of the same year, the United States Congress passed
the Formosa Resolution authorizing the
President to defend the ROC's offshore islands.[4]
The First Taiwan Straits crisis ended in March 1955 when the PLA
ceased its bombardment. The crisis was brought to a close during
the Bandung
conference.[4]

The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis
began on August 23, 1958 with air and naval engagements between the
PRC and the ROC military forces, leading to intense artillery
bombardment of Quemoy (by the PRC) and Amoy (by the ROC), and ended on November of the
same year.[4]
PLA patrol boats blockaded the islands from ROC supply ships.
Though the United States rejected Chiang Kai-shek's proposal to
bomb mainland China artillery batteries, it quickly moved to supply
fighter jets and anti-aircraft missiles to the ROC. It also
provided amphibious assault ships to land
supply, as a sunken ROC naval vessel was blocking the harbor. On
September 7, the United States escorted a convoy of ROC supply
ships and the PRC refrained from firing. On October 25, the PRC
announced an "even-day ceasefire" — the PLA would only shell Quemoy
on odd-numbered days.

Despite the end of the hostilities, the two sides have never
signed any agreement or treaty to officially end the war.

After the 1950s, the "war" became more symbolic than real,
represented by on again, off again artillery bombardment towards
and from Kinmen. In later
years, live shells were replaced with propaganda sheets. The
bombardment finally ceased in 1979 after the establishment of
diplomatic relations between the People's Republic of China and the
United States.

During this period, movement of people and goods virtually
ceased between PRC- and ROC-controlled territories. There were
occasional defectors. One high profile defector was Justin Yifu
Lin, who swam across the Kinmen strait to mainland China and is
now Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank.

Most observers expected Chiang's government to eventually fall
in response to a Communist invasion of Taiwan, and the United
States initially showed no interest in supporting Chiang's
government in its final stand. Things changed radically with the
onset of the Korean
War in June 1950. At this point, allowing a total Communist
victory over Chiang became politically impossible in the United
States, and President Harry S. Truman ordered the United States Seventh Fleet
into the Taiwan straits to prevent the ROC and PRC
from attacking each other.[5]

During the immediate postwar period, the Chinese Kuomintang administration
on Taiwan was inept and corrupt, while soldiers were breaking the
laws.[6] Many
Taiwanese people were disillusioned with the incoming Kuomintang
administration, which proved to be as harsh as Japanese imperial
rule. Anti-mainlander violence flared on February 28,
1947 following an accidental shooting of a cigarette vendor by the
police. The resulting 228 Incident became a pivotal event in the
shaping of modern Taiwanese identity. For several weeks after the
incident, many Taiwanese rebelled, participating in island-wide
riots protesting the government's corruption and harsh rule. The
governor, Chen Yi, while pretending to negotiate in good faith with
leaders of the protest movement, called for troops from mainland
China. The Kuomintang, allegedly fearing a Communist infiltration,
assembled a large military force to quell the disturbance in
Taiwan, in the process killing many and imprisoning thousands of
others. Many of the Taiwanese who had formed home rule groups under
the Japanese were the victims of the incident, as were civilian
mainlanders who bore the brunt of vigilante retaliation. This was
followed by martial
law and the "white terror" in which many thousands of
people were imprisoned or executed for their political opposition
to the Kuomintang. Many victims of the white terror were Taiwanese
elite—political leaders, wealthier families, intellectuals, etc. In
addition, mainlanders were not spared either, as many had real or
perceived associations with communists before they came to Taiwan.
For example, some mainlanders who had joined book clubs in mainland
China, deemed leftist by the government, were liable to be arrested
and many served long prison sentences for these real or perceived
threats.

Martial law, among other things, included sedition laws against
supporters of communism
or Taiwanese independence, leading to very
substantial political repression. It also prohibited the formation
of new parties (though opposition figures could run as independents
or tangwai). Second, because of the ROC’s
claim to rule all of China, the vast majority of the seats in the
Legislative
Yuan (parliament)
and National
Assembly (electoral college for the president, now abolished)
were held by those elected from mainland China constituencies in
1947 and 1948. The regime argued that these legislators should keep
their seats until elections in their original constituencies were
possible. Although supplemental elections that increased the
ethnically Taiwanese representation in these bodies were held
starting in 1969, the huge majorities of senior legislators
continued through 1990, guaranteeing KMT control whether or not the party won on
election day. More informally, the long term residents of Taiwan
prior to the late 1940s remained distinctly under-represented in
the top ranks of government[7][8][9] and the
party through the early 1990s, suggesting a significant limit to
democratization.

Economic
developments

Partially with the help of the China Aid Act of 1948 and the
Chinese-American Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction, the
Republic of China government implemented a far-reaching and highly
successful land reform program on Taiwan during the 1950s. They
redistributed land among small farmers and compensated large
landowners with commodities certificates and stock in state-owned
industries. These rural reforms, such as the 375 rent reduction
program, were never implemented with much force in mainland China
but were very successful in Taiwan.

Overall, although the reforms left some large landowners
impoverished, others turned their compensation into capital and
started commercial and industrial enterprises. These entrepreneurs
were to become Taiwan's first industrial capitalists. Together with
refugee businessmen from mainland China, they managed Taiwan's
transition from an agricultural to a commercial, industrial
economy.

Taiwan's phenomenal economic development earned it a spot as one
of the four Four Asian Tigers, along with Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, though as
of late, much work remains in the on-going process of privatization
of state-owned industries and in financial sector reforms.

Diplomatic
setbacks

1960s ROC slogan: "The times test the youth. The youth create the
times."

The 1970s saw many switches in diplomatic recognition from the
Republic of China to the People's Republic of China.
After World War II, the Republic of China had been one of the
founding members in the United Nations and held China's seat on
the Security Council until 1971, when it was
expelled by General Assembly Resolution
2758 and replaced in all UN organs with the People's Republic of China
government. (Multiple attempts by the Republic of China to re-join
the UN have not made it past committee. See China and the United
Nations.) Since the 1980s, the number of nations officially
recognizing the Republic of China has decreased to 24. The People's
Republic of China refuses to maintain diplomatic relations with any
government which formally recognizes the Republic of China, leading
to a complex political status of Taiwan
(see also one China policy and foreign
relations of the Republic of China). United States troops were
stationed in Taiwan after the victory of the Communists in mainland
China in order to aid in the defense of Taiwan against invasion by
the People's Republic of China. The United States military
continued to be stationed in Taiwan until diplomatic relations were
broken with the Republic of China in 1979 but to this day maintains
a significant intelligence presence.

Democratic
reforms

Even though Chiang Kai-shek operated an autocrat
government. As securing Taiwan, he also slowly began
democratization progress in Taiwan, beginning with the elections of
local offices. He also reformed the top Kuomintang leadership,
transforming the party from a democratic
centralist organization to one with many factions, each with
differing opinions. Chiang Ching-kuo, succeeding his
father Chiang Kai-shek, accelerated to liberalize the political
system in Taiwan. Events such as the Kaohsiung Incident in 1979
highlighted the need for change and groups like Amnesty
International were mobilizing a campaign against the government
and President Chiang Ching-kuo. Chiang Ching-kuo, although a
mainlander, pronounced that he was also a Taiwanese and also
introduced many ethnically Taiwanese people into top echelons of
the party. He also named Lee Teng-hui, an ethnic Taiwanese, as his
vice president and likely successor. In 1986, the permission to
form new political parties was granted, and the Democratic Progressive
Party (DPP) was inaugurated as the first opposition party.
However, a political crisis appeared imminent as the Ministry of
Justice filed charges against the DPP for violating martial law
restrictions, but President Chiang defused it by announcing that
martial law would end and that new political parties
could be formed as long as they supported the Republican Constitution and
renounced both communism
and Taiwan Independence. The lifting of Martial
Law Decree and the ban on veterans to visit their mainland China
relatives was approved in 1987; the removal of the ban on
registration of new newspapers in 1988 was also a historical
event.

After the 1988 death of Chiang Ching-kuo, his successor Lee Teng-hui
continued to hand more government authority over to the ethnically
Taiwanese and to democratize the government. In 1990, Lee held the
National Affairs Conference which led to the abolishment of the
national emergency period the following year and paved the way for
both the total re-election for the National
Assembly in 1991 and the Legislative Yuan in 1992. Full
democracy in the sense that citizens are able to select their
legislators, not just local officials, in free and fair elections
was achieved in 1991 when the senior legislators were forced to
retire. In 1994, again under the urging of President Lee, the
presidency of the Republic of China was changed via
constitutional revision into a position popularly elected by the
people on Taiwan.

Under Lee, Taiwan underwent a process of localization in which local culture and
history was promoted over a pan-China viewpoint. Lee's reforms
included printing banknotes from the Central Bank rather than the
Provincial Bank of Taiwan and "freezing" the Taiwan Provincial
Government (i.e., stripping the provincial government of much
of its powers and merging those powers into either the central
government's powers or local governments' powers without abolishing
the provincial government altogether). Restrictions on the use of
Hokkien in the broadcast media and in
schools were lifted as well.

However, democratization had its problems. During the early
stages of the process, political parties were still banned, but
independent candidates, some including those who had splintered off
from the Kuomintang, were allowed to run for offices, provided that
they would not receive any campaign funding from the party. As a
result, many of these candidates resorted to borrowing money from
businessmen, local elite, or even gangsters, in exchange for
political and economic favors. This was the beginning of the "black
gold" phenomena in Taiwan in which dishonest politicians were
backed by businessmen and criminal elements at the expense of the
society. In opposition to this, some former Kuomintang members
formed the New Party to combat the
Kuomintang, which had liberalized but had also introduced
widespread corruption.

Another stage was reached when the first direct elections for
the powerful president were held in 1996. Lee ran as the incumbent
in the ROC's first direct presidential election against DPP candidate and former dissident, Peng Ming-min,
which prompted the People's Republic of China
to conduct a series of missile tests in the Taiwan Strait to
intimidate the ROC electorate. The aggressive tactic prompted United States
President Bill
Clinton to invoke the Taiwan Relations Act and dispatch
an aircraft carrier into the region off Taiwan's southern coast to
monitor the situation.

For the Republic of China on Taiwan, political liberalization
and democratization completed rather smoothly. The country
transformed from an authoritarian state to developing fully
democratic institutions without major incidents such as coups by either
revolutionaries or reactionaries. This was because the Kuomintang
itself stated that, in its political roadmap, one-party
dictatorship must end and that the ultimate form of the government
would be a constitutional democracy, provided that the system was
ready for one. Therefore, democratization proceeded smoothly,
without major changes to the constitution or massive restructuring
of the government.

Chen Shui-bian was re-elected by a narrow 0.2% of the vote the
2004
presidential election over Kuomintang Chairman Lien, who had
PFP Chairman Soong as his running mate. On the day before the
election, both Chen and Vice President Annette Lu were shot
while campaigning in Tainan. Their injuries were not life
threatening, but the incident is believed by Pan-Blue to have gained
them enough sympathy to influence the result. That incident might
also gave president Chen the ability of declaring martial
emergency, which allegedly prevented the police and military, which
were strongly Pan-Blue, from voting. Lien refused to concede,
alleging voting irregularities. Kuomintang and PFP supporters held
mass protests throughout the following weeks. Subsequently,
Kuomintang and PFP took the case to the court. The High Court
ordered a recount and found no evidence to support the accusation
made by Kuomintang and PFP. The Court decided that the election
result was legitimate and valid.

During the legislative elections held on 8 December 2004, the
Kuomintang-PFP dominated Pan-Blue alliance gained a slim majority
in the elections which resulted into President Chen resigning as
DPP chairman. The cabinet of Premier Yu Shyi-kun resigned, and Frank Hsieh assumed
premiership on 25 January 2005.

In a move that some saw as a reaction to Chen's re-election, the
People's Republic of China enacted a proposed anti-secession law that allows the use of
force on Taiwan and the Republic of China government if it formally
declares independence. However, this law was met with overwhelming
protest from nearly all political parties and public figures of the
Republic of China and disapproval from the western countries.
Negotiations in January in Macau
between the aviation authorities from both the Republic of China
and People's Republic of China resulted in direct-cross strait
charter flights between mainland China and Taiwan during the Lunar
New Year Period. In a twist of events, President Chen and PFP
Chairman Soong held a summit and the independence-leaning president
indicated that eventual reunification with mainland China would be
an option. Against the anti-secession law proposed by the People's
Republic of China, President Chen held a video conference with the
European
Parliament in Brussels
urging the European Union not to lift the arms
embargo on the People's Republic of China.

Domestic politics during the Chen administration has largely
been a political stalemate as the Kuomintang and PFP together hold
a pan-Blue majority in the legislature. Among the many items that
have made little progress due to the political stalemate are a
stalled arms procurement bill, which would advance defense
capabilities of the Republic of China through the purchase of
weaponry, such as sub-hunting P-3 Orions, from the US government, and
banking reform legislation, which would help in the consolidation
of the many banks in the Republic of China, none of which hold even
10% shares of the local market. It is important to note that the president of the
Republic of China, unlike the president of the United
States, does not wield veto power, providing him with little to
no leverage in negotiating with an opposition legislature,
regardless of how slim the majority.

The constitution was further amended in 2005, creating a
two-vote electoral system, with single member
plurality seats and proportional representative
seats, and abolishing the National Assembly, transferring most of
its former powers to the Legislative Yuan, and leaving further
amendment voting to public referendums. The issue of formally
declaring the independence of Taiwan is also a
constant constitutional question. Arms purchases to the United States are
still a controversial political question, with the Pan-Green
Coalition camp favoring the purchase, and the Pan-Blue
Coalition opposing it. Recent allegations about corruption inside the First Family have led
to three recall motions votations in the Legislative
Yuan aimed at ousting President Chen Shui-bian. All of them have failed
since the Pan-Blue Coalition lacks the two
thirds majority required to complete the process and the political parties voted according to
political lines. The first lady, Wu Shu-chen is prosecuted for corruption,
namely illegally using state funds for personal reasons, and she is
on an ongoing trial. The president faces similar accusations to his
wife, but is protected from prosecution by presidential immunity.
He has promised to resign if his wife is found guilty. However,
after his wife fainted in the preparation hearing, she had sought
and obtained absence of leave from the Court 16 times citing health
concerns before President Chen Shui-bian's term was complete.[10]

In December 2006, municipal and mayoral elections were held in
Taipei and Kaohsiung. The KMT retained a
clear majority in the capital, while the DPP and the KMT obtained very close results in the
southern city of Kaohsiung. Huang Chun-ying lost to Chen Chu by a margin of 0.14
percent, 378,303 votes to 379,417 votes, making Chen Chu the first female mayor of a special
municipality in the Republic of China.In 2007, the ROC
applies for membership in the United Nations under the name
"Taiwan", and is rejected by the General Assembly.

In the 2008 presidential election KMT candidate Ma Ying-jeou defeats
DPP candidate Hsieh with 58.48% of the vote. Ma ran on a platform
supporting friendlier relations with mainland China and economic
reforms. Many voters boycott the referenda on whether and how to
join UN so the level of voter participation required for referenda
to be considered valid is not achieved.

^http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/history/tw08.html
"With regard to politics, Chen worked under the assumption that the
Taiwanese people had been enslaved by the Japanese and actively
promoted a campaign to re-Sinicize (再中國化) them, ignoring their
strong desire to participate in the island’s politics after the
ending of colonial rule. Thus, with the exception of one
“half-mainlander” deputy director appointed to the Education
Department, almost all of the higher positions were held by the
mainlanders. Furthermore, although the speaker of the Taiwan
Provincial Assembly only had the right of consultation, Chen Yi
still chose his favorite confidant, another “half-mainlander” named
Huang Chao-cin (黃朝琴), to hold this post, instead of Lin Sian-tang
(林獻堂), a Taiwanese leader who had long enjoyed public support. As
mainlanders took most of the higher positions within the government
hierarchy while Taiwanese could only serve at low-level ones, the
provincial governor was viewed as a new version of the Japanese
governor (日本總督), and Taiwan’s return to the ROC was viewed as
merely a “change of bosses” (換老闆)."

^http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/history/tw08.html
"In 1946, one year after the Japanese surrender, the TPGO abolished
Japanese editions of newspapers, forbade the use of the Japanese
language in both writing and speech, and began to use proficiency
in Chinese as an important consideration when recruiting people for
government jobs. Taiwanese intellectuals suddenly became
semi-literate, therefore, and most were excluded from the civil
service, which added to people’s feelings of resentment."

^http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/history/tw10.html
"With successful formation of the DPP on September 28, 1986, the
supplementary election of central public representatives held that
year marked the true beginnings of party politics and a competing
two-party democracy in Taiwan. In addition, the Nationalist
government was accelerating the process of localization, with the
number of Taiwanese taking important government posts slowly
increasing to better reflect the general demographic structure of
the island."